Conceal, Protect - By Carol Ericson Page 0,63
on the line.
“What do you want from me? You have my laptop. I swear I don’t know anything.”
“I think we’ve come to that realization, but now we need to get into the file Abby put on your computer—and you’re going to help us.”
“If she put something on my laptop and you have the laptop, then just open it.”
The man tsked. “It’s not that easy. Our Abby was a computer genius, wasn’t she? She put safeguards on this file.”
“Don’t you people do this sort of thing for a living? You can’t crack a password on a file? Abby once told me it was easy to do.”
“This is a different kind of password. We need your voice.”
J.D. swore under his breath. That Abby Warren was a piece of work. She’d involved Noelle at every level.
Noelle dug her fingernails into the denim covering his leg and hunched her shoulders. She hadn’t realized the full implications of the password.
“I don’t understand. Why do you need my voice?”
“Your clever roommate installed a voice-activated password on this file. We need you to say the code into the microphone of this laptop to unlock the file.”
“Are you kidding me?” The nails dug deeper. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know any voice-activated...”
She released her grip on his thigh and covered her mouth.
The man on the phone pounced. “You do know it, don’t you? Abby would’ve had you say something into the mic to set this up.”
“I don’t remember.” She shook her head at J.D. “I don’t remember what it is. She did have me read a set of words or names into the microphone, but she told me it was just a test. She didn’t install the voice-activated security on any of my own files.”
“You’d better remember, and we’re here to help you remember. We have your brother, Noelle. We’ll kill him if you don’t join us and unlock this file. Then we’ll kill you and that cowboy bodyguard you have hanging around you every minute of the day.”
Noelle swallowed.
“Come alone. Tomorrow night. You unlock this file and we’ll be out of your life, and you can take your brother with you.”
“What’s in the file?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Secrets. Every country has them. I don’t even know what’s in the file. I just have orders from my superior to get it. You and I? We don’t need to concern ourselves with all of that.”
“Where are you? Where do you have Ted?”
“Oh, no. It’s not going to be that easy. We give you our location and you tell the sheriff or the cowboy and we get ambushed. A few of us will pick you up, and the rest will stay with your brother. That way, if anything unplanned happens to us, the others will execute your brother.”
J.D. squeezed her wrist and mouthed No.
She shook him off. “Where? Where will you pick me up?”
“We’ll be in touch.”
The phone went dead, and Noelle dropped it onto the table. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to wait for further instructions on the meeting place tomorrow, and then I’m going to go out there like the welcoming committee from hell.”
The adrenaline was already coursing through his veins at the thought of getting close to Zendaris’s men.
“You can’t do that, J.D. You heard him. They’ll kill Ted.”
“You don’t think they’re going to kill him anyway, and you, if you go out there? You don’t even know the password, and you don’t want to know how they plan to get it out of you.”
“So you go to the meeting place instead of me and start shooting? Then what? The people holding Ted will know. They’ll kill him. And what about me? What if you die instead? What happens to me then?” Her words ended on a sob.
He dropped to his knees in front of her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’m not going to die. Trust me. I can get other agents out here for backup. We can save Ted, too.”
“Other agents?” She touched his face. “How long is that going to take? They have Ted.”
“Even if they can’t get here tomorrow night, we have a lot of time. They need your voice to unlock that file. They’re not going to hurt Ted before you get there. We can do this. Prospero can do this. We’ve been waiting four long years for another crack at Zendaris.”
“What if I go first as the bait, and then you and your agents follow me in?”
“No. I don’t want